This is what off-days are all about. Wait...first things first. Today is Thursday, the last time I wrote was Monday. Hmm...let me try and remember what all's happened. I worked Tuesday, and apparently didn't do anything too interesting, because I didn't write, and don't really remember, so oh well. Yesterday morning before work I hitched a ride into Pensacola with Capt. Mark and we went to a used boat parts store over there. Before heading back, though, he took me to a seafood market called Joe Patti's. Really cool place...they have every kind of fish/sea creature you could ever want laying right up there on the counter. You tell them how you want it cut up and they'll do it for you right there. Pretty neat. Anyway, other than that I pretty much just spent the day working and trying to get the boat in shape.

I got up pretty early this morning and went with Capt. Barry and Doug sailing on Daedalus. I'm not exactly sure how big Daedalus is, but it's a homemade stays'l yawl Barry does charters on. He'd done a lot of work to her in the last couple of weeks, so we took her on a test sail before his charter this afternoon. (more on that later.)

I got back to the marina by 10ish and finished rigging some of the lines on my boat, reinstalled the depthfinder and finally reseated one of the windows. The depthfinder has been giving me a good bit of trouble for the last few months. I think it has something to do with the way it's mounted, but it's installed just like the directions say. Anyway, it used to work fine for about 20% of the time, and the rest of the time instead of displaying the depth, it would just say "---". That really helps a lot, doesn't it? So, I relocated the transducer and remounted it a supposedly better way, and it worked perfectly--at the dock anyway. Oh yeah...I forgot to tell you that I finally took my boat out today! After lunch I got everything cleaned up and rigged enough to go sailing on my own boat! So, not only did I get to go sailing on a different boat this morning, I went on my boat this afternoon! It was a great day for it, too. The wind was blowing a solid 18-20 knots with gusts up close to 30. I broke my personal speed record this afternoon...I tell ya, this wind was pretty serious. But that was good, because I really got a good taste of what it's like down here with the wave action and all. Ok, so back to the depth finder...Once I started sailing, it only worked about half of the time. Fabulous...what good is a depthfinder that says "---" for half of it's 'working' life? Anyway, you probably haven't heard the last of the depthfinder saga...I've got to figure out what I'm going to do about it.

I motored out of the marina and got turned around so I could raise sail. I knew that some of the marina folk were watching, and it was pretty gusty, so I was just hoping that everything would go pretty smoothly...considering a lot of changes have been made to the boat, and 5 months have passed since I last sailed her. Well, I got the mainsail about half the way up, and the thing completely jammed. The jib halyard was caught on a block about 3/4 the way up the mast, and was laying across the sail track. Great. Here I am, about 100 yards from shore in 20 knot winds and my sail is jammed. Luckily it didn't take too long to get it unstuck, and the sail was good to go. Raising the jib proved uneventful. Regardless, there were about 45 seconds there where I looked like a monkey trying to catch a greased watermelon.

So I sailed around a while and then met up with Barry & his afternoon charter, who just happened to be the North Georgia College ladies softball team. I sailed beside them for a while, and then came on back because I wanted to be sure and make it well before dark. (I've got about 2 hours worth of work before the mast lights will be operational.) About the time that the Daedalus was pulling back in, Mark, Patti, & Swab were walking by, so we just happened to stop and watch all the ladies disembark. You should have seen how well Swab attracted all of 'em. Mark said that he'd work me a deal and rent out Swab by the hour. It's worth a thought...all the spring breakers 'll be down here next week...maybe I can get a half-day rate and take Swab to the beach. hmmm.

Ok, so after that, I talked to Ms. Patti, & she agreed to let me go over and watch Survivor with them. She is a huge fan, and I think that she's seen every series. I've not been such a huge fan lately, but I just jumped on the opportunity to watch an actual tv show...it's been a while! After that we watched the Apprentice...not a bad night of television, I'll say. But, that's certainly not all...Mr. Mark made another one of his gourmet dinners. This man is a great cook, oh, & mom...I actually ate brussel sprouts. Ms. Patti made me try them, & I was pretty shocked, but I actually think I'll have them again sometime...they weren't bad at all! Oh, & after dinner I was inducted into the NYBA. The National Yacht Basketball Association. I'm not to bad, if I may say so myself.

I almost forgot...I bet you're wondering where the title came from. Apparently the resturant has a new dress/appearance code which outlaws beards. They said that I could go down to the goatee, which is fine with me. The problem, however, was getting there...it took me 2 razors and a pair of scissors to finally get my beard short enough to actually shave it. Eh...whatever.

Anyway, I'm working all day for the next 3 days, so I doubt there will be much to talk about. Ya'll have a great weekend!!